Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 25 Mar 1997

Vol. 476 No. 7

Written Answers. - EU Funding.

Bertie Ahern

Ceist:

363 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the EU funding received by his Department in 1996; the funding which he expects to receive in 1997; and the relevant funds and budget lines under which such funding is received. [8020/97]

Minister for Enterprise and Employment (Mr. R. Bruton)

As the national authority for the European Social Fund, all ESF transfers to Ireland come through my Department. In 1996, Ireland's ESF receipts amounted to £252.989 million. My Department's current projection of total ESF receipts for 1997 is £313.7 million; among the variables which would impact on the final outturn for 1997 is the exchange rate of the Irish pound against the ECU.

Almost all ESF aid is transferred to other Departments and agencies and to private beneficiaries for use under approved operational programmes, community initiatives and innovative actions programmes.

My Department is directly responsible for managing a number of operational programmes and community initiatives which receive support from the Social Fund. In the case of some programmes, EU aid is also provided from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Department of Finance, in its capacity as the national authority for the European Regional Development Fund, is the central recipient of all European Regional Development Fund funds from Brussels.

Details of EU receipts in 1996 in respect of the programmes which my Department administers, together with latest forecasts for 1997, are as follows:

Operation Programme-Community Initiative	1996 receipts	1997 forecast
ESF	ERDF	ESF	ERDF
	£m	£m	£m	£m
Human Resources Development OP	202.394	15.015	201.690	16.293
Industrial Development OP	11.907	83.019	31.640	84.632
Employment Initiative	9.784	0.623	15.305	0.623
Adapt Initiative	3.139	Nil	5.228	Nil
SME Initiative	0.550	Nil	0.852	4.000
Innovative Actions	1.291	Nil	3.700	Nil
Totals	229.065	98.657	258.415	105.548

In addition to the programmes listed above, the county enterprise boards, which are under the aegis of my Department, benefited from ESF and European Regional Development Fund funding under the operational programme for local, urban and rural development. This operational programme is administered by the Department of An Taoiseach. ESF receipts for the county enterprise boards in 1996 amounted to £0.383; ESF receipts for the boards in 1997 are estimated at £2.334 million.

ERDF aid of approximately £10 million was received in 1996 in respect of actions carried out by the county enterprise boards. Projected European Regional Development Fund receipts for 1997 in respect of the board's activities are estimated at £12 million.